Users may generate and access a large number of articles, such as emails, web pages, word processing documents, spreadsheet documents, instant messenger messages, and presentation documents, using a client device, such as a personal computer, personal digital assistant, or mobile phone. Some articles are stored on one or more storage devices coupled to, accessible by, or otherwise associated with the client device(s). Users may sometimes wish to search the storage device(s) for articles.
Generally, search engines do not index instant messenger messages and/or allow a user to search instant messenger messages. Some applications exist that store and/or log a user's instant messages, but these applications generally do not index the user's instant messenger messages. Generally, search engines may not group logged instant messages into conversations, and a user may not be able to search for conversations of associated instant messages.
Additionally, conventional client-device search applications can require an explicit search query from a user to generate results, and may be limited to file names or the contents of a particular application's files.